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Making Paintbrushes

Tonight I was babysitting for a couple of cool kiddoes I know. We went outside thinking I might have a frisbee in my car (I was just hoping, vainly, that I had one deep in the trunk). No go. So then we pulled out some rope from the trunk and jumped rope a little bit, but decided it would be more fun to take turns wearing the cowboy hat and tying the rope into lassos and trying to throw it around a pole. My knot-tying skills are deficient in the lasso department, but luckily our rope-throwing was so bad that the functionality and direction of the slipknot were not tested.

So for our next project we decided to do some art and big brother (age 7) generously let little sister (age 5) use his fancy new acrylic paints, and even squirted them out for her on a homemade cardboard mixing board. And they said, "Sherry, could you please find us a paintbrush?" And that was how we learned there was no paintbrush in the house. So big brother and I handcrafted a bunch of paintbrushes, and little sister tested them out and painted along, giving us helpful feedback and constructive criticism. We made one from a rigid plastic pipe or straw of some kind and some bristles cut off of a basting brush we found in the kitchen (big brother's innovation, done before I arrived in the kitchen behind him). Connected with scotch tape, it wasn't all that sturdy. But we changed over to duct tape with great success. We also made a variety of brushes out of sticks and pine needles I gathered from the woods outside. The brown pine needles were a little too stiff but we got nice feathery effects with the green pine needles. Again, duct tape was an excellent fastener. Finally, we had a number of experimental paint application devices made with Q-tips, or a combination of Q-tips and pine needles and sticks. It was way fun, and the painting turned out pretty nicely.

And then we watched the Olympics and drew pictures and laughed at the commercials and wanted candy but didn't get to have it and got sleepy and fidgety until Dad got home. And now I am sleepy and fidgety and want candy but don't get to have it and it is past my bedtime and there is nobody to tuck me in.